Project Staff

Drexel Turner, Director
Stephen Fox, Principal Investigator
Barrie Scardino, Senior Research Associate
Selden Wallace, Research Associate
Research Assistants: Linda Anderson, Susan Stem, David Reading
Paul Hester, Photographer
Typists: Doris Anderson, Janelle Hightower, Carole Speranza, Paulette Woods

Project Coordination

Kenneth Austin, Project Coordinator, City of Houston
Lissa Anderson, Project Coordinator, Texas Historical Commission
Glenda Callaway, Project Coordinator, Southwest Center for Urban Research

City of Houston

Jim McConn, Mayor
Molly Parkerson, Assistant to the Mayor for Cultural Affairs
Edwin Becnel, Director, Community Development Division, Office of the Mayor
James J. Smith, Director, Economic Development Division, Office of the Mayor
Kenneth Austin, Urban Economist, Economic Development Division
Albertino G. Mays, Planning Administrator, Community Development Division

Texas Historical Commission

Truett Latimer, Executive Director
Joe Williams, Director, National Register Programs
Joe Oppermann, Director, Technical Preservation Assistance Division
Lissa Anderson, Director, Registration and Survey

School of Architecture, Rice University

O. Jack Mitchell, Dean
Drexel Turner, Assistant to the Dean

Southwest Center for Urban Research

Andrew J. Rudnick, Administrative Director
Glenda Callaway, Assistant Director

The Houston Architectural Survey was prepared by the Southwest Center for Urban Research, a nonprofit research consortium consisting of the University of Houston, Rice University, Texas Southern University, Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The survey was funded by the National Register Program of the Texas Historical Commission and the Community Development Division of the Office of the Mayor of the City of Houston. Research was conducted primarily at the School of Architecture, Rice University, between February and September 1980. The survey was undertaken with the cooperation and assistance of the Houston Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the Metropolitan Research Center of the Houston Public Library.

The survey in its present form provides narrative descriptions and photographs for 251 buildings and sites of special interest located within the corporate limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City of Houston. In general, those buildings and sites included in the survey were built or developed before 1950 and might reasonably be expected over the course of the next twenty years to either be proposed for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places or become the object of concerted preservation efforts. In particular the survey considers:

• Buildings and sites of exceptional architectural or landscape design interest within a local or wider context, completed or developed before 1950. Examples include Lovett Hall, Rice University; Isabella Court; Niels Esperson building; and the Hugo V. Neuhaus house.
• Buildings and sites of less exceptional design interest, completed before 1950, which are (1) of clear cultural importance or (2) likely to become endangered or the object of concerted preservation efforts. Examples include the Harris County Courthouse of 1912 and the Carnegie Branch Library.
• In a few cases, more recent buildings and sites which (1) display exceptional design interest, (2) represent the work of an exceptionally distinguished designer and/or (3) exhibit vulnerability to demolition or adverse alteration. Examples of the first two categories include work in Houston by Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, and Philip Johnson. The Orange Show is an example of the last.
• Buildings and sites which when considered individually do not present exceptional or uniformly high degrees of design interest but which may be significant when considered collectively as elements of an historical or multi-resource district or as part of a thematic grouping. Lower downtown Houston and the University of Houston campus are examples.
• Buildings and sites which had already been placed on the National Register of Historic Places at the time the survey list was compiled were not included in the survey, nor were buildings for which nomination forms had been completed and filed with the Texas Historical Commission. The Houston Cotton Exchange of 1884 is an example of the former and the Houston City Hall of 1938, the latter.

The survey is intended to provide a comprehensive reference tool to assist the Texas Historical Commission, the City of Houston and others interested in identifying and assessing buildings and sites worthy of preservation in Houston and its immediate environs. It also contains historical and biographical information which will be of value to local researchers. The contents of this report reflect the judgment of the project staff and are in no way intended to state the official views or policies of the Southwest Center for Urban Research or its constituent members, or of the Texas Historical Commission or the City of Houston.

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